News Intelligence Analysis
To Russia, Love Tom DeLay
Russ Baker
January 04, 2006
Editor's Note: Investigative reporter and essayist
Russ Baker is a longtime contributor to TomPaine.com. He is the
founder of the Real News Project, a new organization dedicated
to producing groundbreaking investigative journalism. He can
be reached at russ@russbaker.com.
Once in a very long time, a scandal comes along that seems
to capture the essence of our times. I’d say that scandal
appeared on Saturday, when most of us were too busy getting out
the honkers and the booze to notice.
Here’s the crux: Was the Republican leader Tom DeLay
working on behalf of Russians against the American public interest—and
being compensated for it?
That’s a pretty strong accusation, but unless I read
my Washington Post wrong, that is exactly what was alleged in
a front page story that appeared on Saturday, the last day of
2005, and therefore may escape proper notice. [story appended
below] The article is even easier to miss because of the mundane
“more of the same” headline above it: " The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
: Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients
of Lobbyist."
First, some background. Tuesday, as the world knows by now,
Jack Abramoff, the powerful Republican lobbyist and major DeLay
associate, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion
charges, agreeing to cooperate in a federal corruption probe
in Washington. He faces up to 11 years in federal prison and
must pay $26.7 million in restitution.
For many months, we’ve been hearing stories about Abramoff’s
shakedowns and indiscreet e-mails mocking Indian tribal leaders
and other outrages, many of them with DeLay at the periphery
or more directly involved.
The problem with these stories—which range from machinations
over gambling licenses and Pacific island sweatshops to golfing
junkets in Scotland—is that they are complicated, seemingly
obscure and center on figures like Abramoff, who, while important,
is merely an enabler of a larger and more troubling reality:
How Republicans inside and outside of the Congress are subverting
democracy itself, with public funds going to advance the personal
interests of a small set of powerful Americans.
The figures that really matter in this story are bigger fish—among
them DeLay, the architect and de facto leader of the corporate
takeover of Congress under cover of a social revolution.
That’s why the Post story should be one of the biggest
stories of the new year, even if it got lost on the last day
of the old one. It needed to be published on another day, and
it needed to be told differently. So, here’s a stab at capturing
what I see as most important about it.
Cumulatively, a careful reader comes away with the following
conclusion: DeLay was essentially being bribed by Russians. Specifically,
a phony nonprofit set up by DeLay’s former top aide was
used to transfer monies from powerful Russians to DeLay, in return
for his influencing legislation that could direct U.S. taxpayer
money into their pockets. The Russians, working through super-lobbyist
Jack Abramoff, put up most of the $2.5 million “contributions”
that funneled through the outfit.
DeLay got free international trips and fancy free office space
in a secret townhouse, and his wife got paid a sizable monthly
salary for doing nothing. Meantime, the nonprofit presented itself
to the public as devoted to promoting family values, and ran
ads attacking Democrats.
Monies were passed from Russian oil and gas executives working
with Abramoff through a now-defunct London law firm and an obscure
Bahamian company into an outfit, set up by former DeLay Chief
of Staff Ed Buckham, masquerading as a grassroots advocacy group
on family values. The group, the U.S. Family Network, existed
for five years, but apparently did little or nothing on family
issues, though it actually had the temerity to send out fundraising
letters to the public, warning that “the American family
is under attack from all sides: crime, drugs, pornography, and…
gambling.” It also paid for ads attacking vulnerable Democratic
candidates.
But what it was really doing, according to the article, was
influencing DeLay to support legislation favorable to wealthy
Russians—with the bill paid for by American taxpayers. DeLay
traveled to Moscow in 1997 and spent time with the Russians,
though he claimed to the House clerk that another nonprofit paid
for it and that he was in that country to “meet with religious
leaders there.”
Probably the most incendiary material in the Post story was
buried, beginning in paragraph 32. The former president of the
U.S. Family Network, a pastor no less, actually says that Buckham
explained to him in 1999 that a $1 million payment passed through
to the organization was intended specifically to influence DeLay's
1998 vote on a bill that enabled the International Monetary Fund
to use U.S. taxpayer monies, in part, to bail out the Russian
economy and specific wealthy Russian investors involved with
the scheme.
"Ed told me, 'This is the way things work in Washington,'
" [Pastor Christopher] Geeslin said. "He said the Russians
wanted to give the money first in cash." Buckham, he said,
orchestrated all the group's fundraising and spending and rarely
informed the board about the details.
Tom DeLay and his cronies appear to have been accepting what
amounted to bribes from Russians with connections to the Yeltsin-Putin
regimes who wanted U.S. taxpayer monies to keep flowing to benefit
them. They laundered the money, and, worse, did it through a
nonprofit organization, which, in turn, claimed to be established
to fight the decline in moral standards in America. Even more
appalling, while this phony charity was doing this mercenary
work, it was hitting up naïve members of DeLay’s political
base for contributions.
The fine print is equally tawdry. Mrs. DeLay’s salary
of “at least $3,200 each month for three of the years the
group existed” (that’s a total of at least $115,200)
was supposedly in compensation for supplying Buckham with a list
of "lawmakers’ favorite charities." The Post mentions
this only briefly, and with a straight face. But the transparent
ridiculousness of this on so many levels offers a bounty for
journalists who pursue it.
How better to capture the brazen hypocrisy of all this than
through tabloid-style headlines:
Revenue
from the phony ‘family’ charity was used to finance
radio ads attacking vulnerable Democratic lawmakers. So, let’s
see:"Putin Buddies Paid For Attacks On Dems"
Other
funds went to finance the cash purchase of a townhouse near DeLay’s
congressional office. DeLay’s guys called it “the Safe
House.” So, maybe this headline: “Russian Cash Bought
DeLay Safe House”
The point
man for this, DeLay’s former aide Buckham, had been executive
director of the Republican Study Committee, a group of ‘fiscally
conservative’ House members. Headline: “Fiscal Conservatives
Give U.S. Money To Rich Russians”
The Russian angle is especially important, as recent developments
show a growing clampdown by Putin on democracy in Russia—from
arrests of political opponents to curtailment of the press—along
with blatant attempts to intimidate former Soviet republics like
Ukraine. This puts the so-called freedom-loving GOP leadership
in bed with the least savory of the holdover Communists.
There will be many developments in the weeks ahead, now that
Abramoff has cut a deal with the feds. When he begins his promised
cooperation with the prosecution, he may have things to say about
many other matters, including the U.S. Family Network.
But it’s important in these overwhelming times to stay
focused. Ultimately, these cases are not about Jack Abramoff,
a fellow most of us never even heard of until fairly recently.
They are about what has happened to this country. Put simply,
the American people were taken to the cleaners by a group of
charlatans in the guise of faith healers who didn’t even
believe in their own product.
I doubt The Washington Post would give front page play to
such a story—or have assigned a reporter with experience
covering national security—if this was not the big one.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to RussiaGate?
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